[Results of an educational program for adults with asthma]

Abstract

Background: Asthma is a world health problem. Education of asthmatic patient has been proposed as a choice for diminishing mortality due to asthma.

Objective: To demonstrate that educational programs for asthmatic patients help to reduce disease's severity, crises and hospitalizations number and encourage a bigger therapeutic compliance.

Material and methods: 80 asthmatic patients were divided into two groups; first one received educational curse and second one does not. All patients received treatment according to international guides, including monthly consultation, flow-meter, and symptoms day book; an initial and final evaluation was made about disease's knowledge. Course consisted of a workshop including crisis management, use of inhaled medication, flow-metry and relaxation techniques.

Results: We studied 76 patients, with a mean age of 34 years; 36 were assigned to group 1 and 40 to group 2. Initial assessment of both groups was of 7.8, while final evaluation of groups 1 and 2 was of 9.3 and 8.4, respectively. Group 1 had lesser number of hospitalizations than group 2 (p-0.005), lesser number of emergency consultations (p-0.005) and a higher overall improvement than group 2, in which only 8 patients got well. A third part of the group 1 abandoned treatment, while patients that abandoned treatment in group 2 accounted for 79% (p < 0.0005).

Conclusions: Educational programs for asthmatic adult patients diminish severity of disease, number of crises and hospitalizations, and also increase therapeutic compliance.